Juana Apolo

Juana Apolo walks out of a cemetery in La Andina where her father, brother and sister are buried, all of whom died of cancer.

Testimonial of Juana Apolo, of La Andina

I’ve lived here in the Amazon for more than 20 years and I am a cook at the San Francisco oil camp. My father, Manuel Ignacio Apolo Ramírez, died in 1992 of skin cancer; he was 68. His first symptom was that he had a little sore below his eye. He had two operations and lost his eyesight. The doctors said the cancer had spread, and when it went into his brain, he would die.

When he got sick, we had a family meeting with all ten of us brothers and sisters, and we chipped in to pay for his treatments.

He was a farmer and grew corn, rice, peanuts, yuca and plantains. Afterwards, when he was sick, he didn’t work, not even on the most beautiful days, he never left the house.

My sister, Carmen Apolo, died when she was 44. She had a tumor and the doctors said it was uterine cancer. They operated, but she didn’t last a year. She was a single mother and the eldest of all of us.

My brother, Saúl Apolo Ramírez, died of stomach cancer when he was 49 [see testimony of Amanda Armijos]. They operated, but the tumor was too big, and nothing could be done. It must have been the contamination that killed him.

I Stand with Steven

I Stand with Steven

Pledge:

I support attorney Steven Donziger and Ecuadorian advocates Javier Piaguaje and Hugo Camacho in their efforts to hold Chevron accountable for its devastation of farmer and indigenous communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon. I call on Chevron to end its attacks against human rights lawyers, activists, and the communities of Ecuador who continue to demand Chevron meet its legal, moral, and ethical responsibilities and clean up its toxic waste in Ecuador.

During more than two decades of oil drilling in the Ecuadorian Amazon, Chevron admitted to discharging billions of gallons of toxic water into the rainforest, leaving local people suffering from an epidemic of cancer, miscarriages and birth defects. The affected indigenous and farmer communities have fought back with the help of a committed local legal effort, grassroots activism, and the tireless efforts of lawyers from around the world, including New York-based human rights lawyer Steven Donziger.

Chevron spent nine years arguing in United States Federal Court that the case against it should be heard in Ecuador. After being found liable for $19 billion in damages in the very Ecuadorian Court chosen by the company, Chevron responded by filing a retaliatory suit against Steven Donziger, Ecuadorian lawyer and advocate Pablo Fajardo, Goldman Prize winner Luis Yanza, and all 47 of their named clients in the very venue Chevron deemed inappropriate when the case was originally brought.

Chevron’s abusive legal strategy flies in the face of everything that our justice system and indeed our Constitution holds dear. For these reasons I support the fight of Steven Donziger, Javier Piaguaje, and Hugo Camacho and their colleagues to hold Chevron accountable for its contamination in Ecuador and the abuses of our justice system.